It was a different time, wasn’t it? But not so different from our own that we cannot learn from it. On the evening that the team returned home, a large contingent of parents, friends, and townsfolk turned out on the platform to welcome the train as it pulled into Plymouth Station, cheering the team loudly as they disembarked. One day the team traveled upstate from Plymouth by train to compete in the state championship, which Plymouth won. In fact, he rose to become captain of the debate team, which was the best in all Michigan. It is brought about by example and persuasion, not by sloganeering and shouting down.Īn example from Kirk’s life might illustrate.ĭuring his high school days, Kirk was a member of the debate team at Plymouth High School. It looks to the past, to be sure, but only to more clearly see the way through to tomorrow. Rooted in the small community, it is homely and humble and it makes for respectful peace within families, between neighbors, and ultimately among nations. Conservatism is certainly not a program, a campaign, or a career choice. Kirk recognized that conservatism is a philosophy or a way of looking at life that makes for a manner of belief and of action that most closely honors the way men and women ought to act among their neighbors in community and in matters of transcendent faith. “Philosophy” translates to “love of knowledge,” and to love knowledge, it must be pursued and embraced. He held with Old John Adams that ideology is “the science of Idiocy.” There is a difference between ideology and philosophy. People who desire such a scenario are called ideologues, and Kirk had nothing to do with ideology. Indeed, Russell Kirk’s writings have never appealed to people who want all or nothing, who want an instant conservative revival complete with a well-designed, well-executed strategy for political victory, instant cultural harmony, an end to dissent, an end of discussion on matters of the role of religion in the public square, and the inauguration of something like a secular heaven on earth. What this young man wanted was a verbal brawl, perhaps with shouting and cutting remarks that would leave one or the other participants wounded and angry-and most importantly, defeated and trampled. In the question and answer period, a student voiced this protest: ‘I came here to hear a debate between a conservative and a liberal, and all I got was an argument between a conservative liberal and a liberal liberal.’ ” The July, 1955 issue of The Freeman contained the following brief remark in the editor’s introductory overview of the issue: “Recently, the Harvard Conservative Club staged a ‘debate’ between Dr. Interestingly, some of Kirk’s harshest critics were men and women of the right. Their efforts were not always met with joy by some who wanted a political program outlined or for conservative spokesmen to steamroll their opposition. He and other thoughtful men and women were laboring to reinvigorate a respectable conservative tradition in these United States. It is brought about by example and persuasion, not by sloganeering and shouting down.ĭuring the mid-1950s, Russell Kirk was a very busy man: writing, debating, travelling, advising, working hard to found a new conservative quarterly, and in general becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of American cultural thought. Rooted in the small community, conservatism is homely and humble, and it makes for respectful peace within families and among neighbors. Russell Kirk recognized that conservatism most closely honors the way men and women ought to act among their neighbors in community and in matters of transcendent faith.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |